A business enterprise may use various application programs running on one or more computer systems to manage and process business data. Application programs may be used for processing business transactions, such as taking and fulfilling customer orders, providing supply chain and inventory management, performing human resource management functions, and performing financial management functions. Application programs also may be used for analyzing data, including analyzing data obtained through transaction processing systems.
The application programs may access and use one or more services that provide specific functions to the application programs. For example, the services may provide information describing the organization of the business enterprise to the application programs. The services typically define and provide interfaces that indicate how the application programs may use the services. In such cases, the application programs use the services as defined by the interfaces to obtain the functions. When the services are replaced, changed, or maintained, the services may not be accessible to the application programs, and the interfaces to the services may change. As a result, attempts by the application programs to access and use the services may result in errors in the application programs.
Similarly, the services may access and use one or more other application programs that provide specific functions to the services. For example, one of the services may be a web service or some other service that is accessible to external users to expose the external users to aspects of the application program that uses the service. The application programs typically define and provide interfaces that indicate how the services may use the functions provided by the application programs. In such cases, the services must use the application programs as defined by the interfaces to obtain the functions. When the application programs are replaced, changed, or maintained, the application programs may not be accessible to the services, and the interfaces to the application programs may change. As a result, attempts by the services to access and use the application programs may result in errors in the application programs.